Mark the 8th of October 2022 bold and red in your calendars! On that date, TEDxVienna is back at the Volkstheater awaiting you with a day full of eye-opening talks, addressing topics and ideas that are “On the Rise”. At the event, you will not only be able to listen to local and international speakers from different fields of expertise spark new ideas, you will also watch astonishing performances live on stage. Additionally, you can take part in interactives during session breaks and expand your network talking to innovators and fellow visitors for the full TEDxVienna experience. And yes – we expect you to deep dive and soak it all up.
In case you are now counting down the days and cannot wait to find out who will be in the spotlight of this year’s conference, we are happy to give you a sneak peek and proudly present: the next four out of 16 international speakers!
Peter McIndoe
Did you know that birds aren’t real? In fact, they are drones that replaced all real birds, established by the US government to spy on their citizens. If this sounds like a conspiracy theory to you, then you are absolutely right. But this one is special – it’s a satirical project, created spontaneously but cleverly developed into a broader movement and new tool for counter protesting, which gained a lot of attention by the media. Its founder is satirist Peter McIndoe, who will enlighten us on the topic of conspiracy theories, which is now on the rise.
About Peter McIndoe
Peter McIndoe is a 24-year-old US American who was brought up in a rural area of Arkansas in a very conservative community. According to him, this is a perfect place to observe certain archetypes of Americans and how certain ideas and beliefs develop and spread. With “Birds aren’t Real”, the former student of the University of Arkansas created a form of comedy intuitively understood by Generation Z.
Candy Licious
For TEDxVienna speaker and drag artist Candy Licious, drag is not only a show or form of expression, but above all a possibility to draw attention to topics and matters of concern of the LGBTQ+ community. The visibility of queer people as artists but also in general is on the rise, which comes with new opportunities as well as challenges, and in the worst case – hate. As part of the queer community, Candy Licious will share insights on how to focus on aspects that connect us all and bring us back together as a society.
About Candy Licious
As Candy Licious, Bernhard Ledinski has been transforming into a sparkling, sweet and dazzling drag personality for more than seven years now. Her name is inspired by one of her favorite colors: pink, which is associated with “Zuckerl” (candy) and sweetness – and was created together with her drag mother Shelby O’Dignity. The Viennese drag queen originally comes from a small village in Styria (the southeast of Austria). She moderates, models and volunteers for different organizations.
Paul Morland
The rise and fall of past societies, the present geo-political situation and the future balance of power can be explored and described by multiple disciplines. One of them, maybe sometimes overlooked, is demography, the statistical study of population. What the balance of births, deaths and migrations have got to do with our past, present and future will be uncovered by author and TEDxVienna speaker Paul Morland.
About Paul Morland
“Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers” (2022) and “Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World” (2019) are the titles of Paul Morland’s books. Additionally, he also writes commentary pieces on demography for newspapers like The Sunday Times or The Telegraph. Morland holds a Master’s Degree from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of London. He has three grown-up children and lives in London with his wife.
Anna Maria Coclite
Smart technology is on the rise. But not only autonomously driving cars or fridges that can reorder groceries by themselves have the potential to change our lives. Intelligent, artificial materials, too, have a lot in store for us. What these could be and how they can influence our future will be brought to us by researcher Anna Maria Coclite. She and her research team have invented a next-generation “smart skin”. Stay tuned to learn more!
About Anna Maria Coclite
Material and surface chemistry is the main field of expertise of the Associate Professor Anna Maria Coclite who is currently working at the Institute for Solid State Physics at the University of Technology (TU) Graz. Furthermore, Anna Maria has gained academic experience in Italy, the USA and France. The native Italian scientist received different awards and honors, among others the AVS Shop Note Price in 2019 and the Startup Idea award in 2018.
Can’t wait to experience our speakers live? Get your ticket for “On the Rise” here or, if you already reserved yourself a seat in the auditorium, invite your friends, co-workers, study colleagues or whoever else comes to mind via our LinkedIn event. Still hungry for more insights on our speakers and missed part 1 of the speaker line-up article series? Here you go. Stay tuned for part 3
This article was reviewed by Anita Ghoreshi and proofread by Ipek Yilmaz. Cover image by Gavin Gough on flickr.
